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Aggie women claim school's first league title
Cessna: Blair shares his moment | Reed Arena the place to be in B-CS
A&M Men: Aggies fall to Texas in double overtime thriller

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Sports Writer

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Texas A&M's A'Quoneshia Franklin (right) and Takia Starks celebrate a play during the Aggies' 67-60 victory over Texas.

The first one never comes easy.

Texas A&M had to repel a late Texas surge for a 67-60 victory, clinching a share of the Big 12 championship, the school's first regular-season women's basketball title in 25 years of league play.

A&M junior point guard A'Quonesia Franklin hit four free throws in the final 33 seconds to cap a career-high 27-point effort. The crowd's chants of "Big 12 champs!" got louder with each free throw. A&M head coach Gary Blair gave a thumbs up in acknowledging the 7,478 fans at Reed Arena after Franklin gave A&M a 65-58 lead with 19 seconds left.

The celebration took off when the players gathered at midcourt afterward to receive the Big 12 championship trophy, donning championship hats as a 2007 league championship banner was unveiled.

A&M was the league's worst program when the 5-foot-3 Franklin joined it three years ago, but the Aggies will enter the upcoming Big 12 Tournament as the No. 1 seed over co-champion Oklahoma, which didn't lose a league game last season and returned all five starters.

"It means a lot to everybody," Franklin said of the title. "There were a lot of doubters out there. We just worked hard to prove to them that we are a good team. We're a great team. The sky's the limit for us."

The 14th-ranked Aggies (23-5, 13-3 Big 12) swept Oklahoma (23-4, 13-3) during the regular season to earn the league's top seed.

Oklahoma beat Baylor 88-61 in Norman, Okla., to claim its share of the crown and the No. 2 seed.

Blair admitted that when the season began, A&M's main goal wasn't winning the Big 12 title but returning to the NCAA Tournament. That changed as A&M swept everyone in the South Division except Texas, which beat the Aggies 64-45 in Austin earlier this season.

This time, however, A&M led for much of the game behind the guard combination of Franklin and sophomore Takia Starks, who combined for 45 points.

"I wouldn't trade my guards for anybody," Blair said.

They were deadly on 3-pointers, hitting 7 of 16 as Texas used a zone defense much of the second half to take away A&M's inside game.

Franklin hit back-to-back 3-pointers that gave A&M a 57-52 lead with 7:29 left.

"She just keeps finding a way," Blair said. "She might be the most underrated point guard in the country, but she's got the biggest heart."

Starks complemented Franklin with 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting.

Texas (17-13, 6-10) never led in the second half, but the Longhorns pulled to within 61-58 on Erneisha Bailey's layup with 1:48 left.

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland The A&M women's basketball team celebrates winning a share of its first Big 12 Championship after a 67-60 victory over Texas at Reed Arena on Wednesday.

The Longhorns squandered two chances to get closer.

Tiffany Jackson forced Franklin into a charging foul with 1:32 left, but Carla Cortijo missed a 3-pointer.

Starks missed a 16-foot jumper, and teammate Patrice Reado was called for a foul while fighting for a rebound.

This time Texas got the ball to Jackson, who had 19 points. But she missed a jumper over 6-foot-3 La Toya Micheaux, who stopped Jackson's dribble.

Texas unwisely fouled Franklin, who made two free throws with 33 seconds left to push A&M's lead to 62-58.

"A'Qua is not the person you want to foul, but that was about the only chance we had," Longhorns coach Jody Conradt said.

Jackson then missed a 3-pointer, and Franklin clinched it with two more free throws with 19 seconds left.

Franklin and Starks were complemented in scoring by 6-3 Micheaux, who had 11 points.

"La Toya Micheaux stepped up for us big, and we did a good job of finding her," Blair said.

Micheaux and Danielle Gant combined for 18 rebounds, 13 of them on the offensive end. A&M's work on the offensive glass - 17 offensive rebounds - often frustrated Texas after the Longhorns had played solid defense to force a miss.

"That gave too many extra possessions to a team playing well and a team which is really hard to guard to start with," Conradt said.

Texas was hurt on the perimeter because Cortijo was limited to 27 minutes with foul trouble.

"That took their only true point guard out of the game," Blair said. "Mine was able to play 40 minutes."

NOTES - A&M football coach Dennis Franchione had a courtside seat. ... The crowd included the season's largest contingent of A&M students, who filled the lower end behind the basket closest to the A&M bench. . ... Blair managed to get his seniors in the game on Senior Night. Post Lenka Zimova made her only shot in 4 minutes, and Jennifer Wilks played the last 19 minutes. ... Zimova's mother, Anna Zimova, flew in from Partizanske, Slovakia, to see her daughter play for the first time in college. ... A&M will play at noon Wednesday in Oklahoma City in the Big 12 Tournament, facing the winner of the No. 8 vs. No. 9 seeds. Texas and Colorado are tied for eighth at 6-10, but Missouri, which ends the season against Kansas on Thursday, could make it a three-way tie. ... A&M won its 18th straight home game, finishing 16-0 at Reed Arena this season, its first unbeaten campaign at home. ... A&M's first season was 1974-75, but the Aggie women didn't play in a league until the Southwest Conference added women's basketball in 1982-83. ... Conradt was denied her 900th victory. ... Many fans stayed to watch the A&M-UT men's game on Reed Arena's big screens.